I wanted to ask a few questions. Our race captain says that they might not have a fleet to race a Freedom 21 in. although I don't think he knows much about the boat other than it's a cat boat. The 2 possible fleets look like this:

Can you tell me what your HC is if you race? I found the PHRF paper that Gary Holt put together and he rates an F21 main only with 257. Do you have an idea if I would be able to compete with the first fleet if I got a Spinnaker and stay sail? The race captain says that even with the adjusted HC, I might not want to be coming in dead last every race. We race on Lake Grapevine outside of Dallas TX and almost all the races are headwind - tailwind legs.

I race my Freedom21 regularly, in fact I'll be racing next weekend in my club's Spring Handicap Series #2 on Lake Guntersville in Alabama. PHRF for the Freedom 21 cat ketch is 255 but that assumes a spinnaker. I would recommend NOT racing until after you get your spinnaker. I also recommend NOT racing in winds less than 5 knots (our boats just are not competitive in light air). Our boats perform best in 8 to 15 knots of steady wind. Above 14 knots I highly recommend having a crew person to help otherwise it is possible to race single handed. In wind over 17 knots I have planed my Shoal Draft Freedom21. Down wind with the spinnaker, you will be hard pressed to find a faster non-foiling mono hull. To windward you will be among the slowest boats in any fleet.

Go with Fleet 1. Get the spinnaker but skip the staysail. I used a staysail for one year and went back to racing as a cat. It helped only marginally in pointing into the wind but, still not as close as our nearest handicap competition, a Catalina 22. It is not worth the hit to your handicap (from 255 down to 243) to add the staysail as with winds over 8 knots the staysail will be overpowered and need to be taken down.